The European Space Agency intends the study to examine similar possible re-entry and breakup cases in the future.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage re-entered and broke up over Poland in early 2025.

The Starlink 11-4 mission in February 2025 left debris that landed in Poland.

The European Space Agency issued a call for tender for a study examining the re-entry and breakup of a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage over Poland in early 2025.

On the Starlink Group 17-32 mission, the Falcon 9 second stage was unable to deorbit itself.

SpaceX has delayed several Starlink missions while investigating the deorbit issue.

During the Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites on the Starlink Group 17-32 mission, the Falcon 9 second stage experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn.

SpaceX teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight.

Propellant was vented from the Falcon 9 second stage on Starlink Group 17-32, lowering the stage perigee to 110 km.

The Falcon 9 second stage performed as designed to successfully passivate the stage after the off-nominal condition.

The first two MVac burns on the Falcon 9 mission were nominal and deployed all 25 Starlink satellites to their intended orbit.

NASA completed a wet dress rehearsal for the Artemis II mission in the early morning hours of Feb. 3, 2026.

Teams encountered liquid hydrogen leaks and audio dropouts during the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal.

The Artemis II wet dress rehearsal countdown reached T minus 5 minutes 15 seconds before halting.

NASA is targeting March 7, 2026 at 01:29 UTC (NET) as the earliest possible launch opportunity for Artemis II.

NASA will conduct a second wet dress rehearsal for Artemis II to allow teams time to review data and investigate issues from the first rehearsal.

GLSV-F17 will carry GISAT-1A/EOS-05.

GISAT-1A (EOS-05) is an Earth observation satellite that will operate in geostationary orbit.

The launch of GLSV-F17 carrying GISAT-1A/EOS-05 is scheduled no earlier than February 20, 2026 at 10:30 UTC.

GISAT-1A operating in geostationary orbit provides real-time monitoring and fast revisit capabilities.

Hazard areas for the GLSV-F17 launch have been published.

United Launch Alliance is rolling out the fairing for USSF-87 to Space Launch Complex 41 for stacking atop the Vulcan launch vehicle.

The USSF-87 launch is scheduled no earlier than February 12, 2026, with liftoff around 08:00 UTC.

The USSF-87 payload includes two GSSAP satellites and an ESPA ring carrying smaller payloads.

The R/S Rocket Ship vessel is offloading a Vulcan rocket at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The Vulcan rocket at Vandenberg is intended for the Space Development Agency Tranche 1 Tracking Layer-B or D mission.

The Vulcan rocket is configured as a VC2, indicating a VC2S configuration.

The scheduled launch for the Vulcan rocket could be as early as May.

A Vulcan rocket has arrived at Vandenberg Space Force Base for the first Vulcan launch from the West Coast.

The image associated with the post depicts a CZ-10A first stage being caught by a cable tower.

The post presents a cable-tower recovery concept for a rocket first stage.

The Mengzhou capsule was lifted onto the CZ-10 test stage on February 3, 2026.

The Qiaolong-1 engine has a thrust-to-weight ratio greater than 160.

Five Qiaolong-1 engines can fit under a 3.35-meter-diameter rocket body due to the engine's slim profile.

The Qiaolong-1 engine produces 85 t of sea-level thrust.

SpaceCircling (天回航天) completed a hot-fire test of its Qiaolong-1 engine at high throttle.

Space Pioneer hopes to launch the Tianlong 3 before the Chinese New Year.

The "无脚鸟" control-algorithm verification rocket successfully launched in China.

The February 2, 2026 Access Hub | Space & Defense Newsletter briefing identifies domestic narrative control, alliance signaling, and electoral optics as the primary metrics governing sovereign space investments.

Omkar Nikam is the Founder and CEO of Access Hub.

Omkar Nikam has over a decade of experience advising governments and private firms across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

The briefing frames satellites as political instruments rather than mere infrastructure.

Omkar Nikam released a high-impact analysis on February 2, 2026 through the Access Hub | Space & Defense Newsletter concluding that satellite procurement has shifted from a technical competition to a political one.

Access Hub is a global B2B marketplace and consultancy that provides strategic insights into supply chain resilience and the sovereign-commercial nexus.

The briefing frames the decisive procurement question as 'What does it say?' rather than 'Will it work?'.

Omkar Nikam is based in Strasbourg, France.

SpaceX acquired Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI.

SpaceX’s FCC filing states the proposed satellites would operate between 500 km and 2,000 km altitude and at inclinations between 30 degrees and Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) inclinations.

SpaceX’s FCC filing projects that launching 1 million tonnes per year of satellites could generate 100 kilowatts of compute power per tonne, which SpaceX estimates would yield 100 gigawatts of AI compute capacity annually.

Analysts have identified engineering challenges for orbital data centers, including latency and the challenges of operating computing hardware in space.